#bendpace-blog

[qqueenofhades]

so I've been watching a lot of videos abt food that's uniquely Hong Kong and y'know with all the changes happening there I had a thought like hm is this preservation and documentation of cultural foods that are at risk of being lost?

and then I thought gosh this sounds familiar likkke everywhere we see violent colonization occur not only are lives and freedom lost but also language culture food

and then I wanted to ask you as a historian: has this always been the case? have people always had low key anxiety about culture "loss" or did they think of it a diff way? is this framing of colonization and cultural loss a recent one?

I'm realizing this is a big question and we are all le tired from les recent events, so pls view this as a no pressure ask, I just uh figured you're the only historian I have real access to haha

This is an important question that I don't currently have the mental wherewithal to answer in great depth, but I think it's important to speak to briefly. And I'll put it this way: yes, human beings have always felt that their culture, their way of life, their present existence, their friends and family, and the forces at work against them are tenuous, uncontrollable, and prone to sudden and violent destruction. I'd say it's one of the key themes of being human. I'll cite the famous example of the 8th-century Old English elegy The Ruin of the Empire, known usually as The Ruin:

This is what many of us would consider the dark and distant past, wherein an unknown person in Anglo-Saxon England is observing the ruins of the Roman Empire in Britain and reflecting on how fragile and frightening the present day feels, as if all the glory has faded into the past, as if things will not be "great" anymore, and the present is just moving inexorably toward darkness:

Bright were the castle buildings, many the bathing-halls, high the abundance of gables, great the noise of the multitude, many a meadhall full of festivity, until Fate the mighty changed that. Far and wide the slain perished, days of pestilence came, death took all the brave men away; their places of war became deserted places, the city decayed. The rebuilders perished, the armies to earth.

And yet... that was the 8th century. That was a very long time ago. A lot of history has happened since then, and despite everything, it's still here. People have always looked at the danger and fragility of their present situation and yearned for the perceived stability of the past. Indeed, the reason we have the myth of the "Dark Ages" is largely thanks to the 14th-century Italian humanist Petrarch, who looked at the (also objectively very, very crappy) 14th century, which is similar to now in a lot of ways, and built the shining myth of the Greco-Roman era as a bygone golden age that society needed to reinstate if it was going to save itself from self-inflicted destruction. This in turn gave rise to the Renaissance, which was intensely a cultural project to reclaim and re-instate a seemingly "better" past in the face of present-day chaos and uncertainty. This included a strict reifying of gender roles (etc. etc. Was There a Renaissance For Women?) and turn toward "purer" social ideals.

Anyway: these concepts have been shaped and articulated differently in various historical periods. But yes, the basic feeling that we are losing ourselves somehow, that the past was better and more stable, that the present challenges can be solved by insular reactionary politics, and so forth, is a very, very common human experience. For better or worse: both tangible and intangible artifacts have always been lost, destroyed, subject to violent sociopolitical conquest attempts, written out of history, and used for oppressive political and cultural processes. Part of the reason the right wing is doing so well worldwide right now is because they are tapping into a very, very old "put the strongman in charge and everything will go back to how [good] it used to be" mythology that is also as old as dirt and time, and which humans just keep doing when things feel existentially scary. This "weaponized nostalgia" is even more of an issue in the age of rampant disinformation, AI, and fake-news bubbles which can totally create what is accepted as reality, very often to the benefit of illiberal, right-wing, authoritarian forces. That is very hard to deal with and overcome, and I don't think we're anywhere near doing it.

That, therefore, is the bad news. The good (as it were) news is that at least these cultural processes and human instincts are not new, and indeed have continued for a long, long time. And even when these old things are destroyed, new ones emerge as well. So yeah.

[flow2024]

I hope this unsolicited ask is ok! do you have any fun and upbeat recommendations for music that you've loved over the last little while? <3

it absolutely is! i love getting asks tho i'm not always good at answering! upbeat music is something i can definitely do, tho (this was supposed to be short but i got carried away. all links are for youtube):

tour de francia, vetusta morla (big fan of this album as a whole but this is the most upbeat one. see also fuego and cuarteles de invierno)

the entirety of life in cartoon motion by mika is one of my go to upbeat albums (specifically: grace kelly, my interpretation)

è un'altra cosa, francesco gabbani (SO incredibly upbeat. i love this song)

canzone per l'estate, canzone del maggio and il pescatore, fabrizio de andré (ive been listening to in direzione ostinata e contraria a LOT lately. lyrics aren't always happy per se but they are upbeat. canzone per l'estate especially. also carlo martello ritorna dalla battaglia di poitiers is just fun)

non è per sempre, afterhours

restless legs, keuning (half of this album is slow and half isn't but i love it. couple others i like are ruptured, stuck here on earth)

planetary (go!) and summertime, my chemical romance (my sibling finally managed to get me to listen to more than 2 mcr songs and i like this album. definitely upbeat though more on the angry end. vibes are fun tho)

1983, and almost all of pop psychology by neon trees (except voices in the halls. that is NOT happy. not all of them are happy upbeat but try also helpless, girls and boys in school, animal, everybody talks)

me ne frego, achille lauro (domenica and bam bam twist also but the first is my favourite of his i think. very upbeat)

vuurwerk, camille (it's just fun)

milano good vibes, and sabbie mobili, mahmood (i like a lot of his stuff but it's not all as bouncy as i was going for for this list. though i do recommend inuyasha, ghettolimpo, il nilo nel naviglio, and uramaki)

halla varlden, wilmer x (there's accents in there but my keyboard won't type them)

il fine e la luna, eugenio in via di gioia

el mismo sol, álvaro soler

come mai, 883 and eccoti, maz pezzali

me voy, julieta venegas

hungriges herz, madsen

cutting myself off now because i can and will talk about music for hours but if you want any more feel free to ask! i have a LOT and i had to cut some out of this list cause it was getting too long

[flow2024]

ask game - i've enjoyed your mashrou' leila posts so much (: what are your favs from ibn el leil? :D (deluxe or not, your choice!!)

i'm glad you enjoy the chaos! this is a difficult question because well. i like ibn el leil a lot. but i gave it a shot:

1. falyakon - this one's easy because it's my favourite mashrou' leila song hands down. everything to me

2. ashabi - little reasoning i just like this song a lot. n the notes he hits in this one are insane (rainbow warrior / greenpeace version included here because i love them equally tbh)

3. icarus - very good violin! 10/10

4. 3 minutes - can't go wrong with this one tbh

5. this is a tie between tayf and kalam tbh. i love them both very much but at this point it becomes hard to pick a favourite

honorable mention to the assembly hall version of marrikh specifically because i do love the original but this performance specifically is on another level